Externalism

The Greatest Writer of to-day(With Maupassant I almost set him)Said t me in a weary way,The last occasion that I met him:"Old chap, this world is more and moreBecoming bourgeois, blasé, blousy:Thank God I've lived so long beforeIt got so definitely lousy."

Said I: "Old chap, I don't agree.Why should one so dispraise the present?For gainful guys like you and me,It still can be extremely pleasant.Have we not Women, Wine and Song -A gleeful trio to my thinking;So blithely we can get alongWith laughing, loving, eating, drinking."

Said he: "Dear Boy, it may be so,But I'm fed up with war and worry;I would escape this world of woe,Of wrath and wrong, of hate and hurry.I fain would gain the peace of mindOf Lamas on Thibetan highlands,Or maybe sanctuary findWith beach-combers on coral islands."

Said I: "Dear Boy, don't go so far:Just live a life of simple being;Forgetting all the ills that are,Be satisfied with hearing, seeing.The sense of smell and taste and touchCan bring you bliss in ample measure:If only you don't think too much,Your programme can be packed with pleasure.

"But do not try to probe belowThis fairy film of Nature's screening;Look on it as a surface show,Without a purpose of a meaning.Take no account of social strife,And dread no coming cataclysm:Let your philosophy of lifeBe what I call: EXTERNALISM.

The moon shines down with borrowed light,So savants say - I do not doubt it.Suffice its silver trance my sight,That's all I want to know about it.A fig for science - 'how' and 'why'Distract me in my happy dreaming:Through line and form and colour IAm all content with outward seeming. . . ."

The Greatest Writer of to-day(I would have loved to call him Willie),looked wry at me and went his way -I think he thought me rather silly.Maybe I am, but I insistMy point of view will take some beating:Don't mock this old Externalist -The pudding's proof is in the eating.